"She made me believe. Maybe we really could save the world. Her and I."
~~~~~
Elizabeth (Eliya) Winters has no idea that her simple life is about to change completely. The almost 18 year old is excited for her birthday but all her hopes and dreams g...
The streets were crowded with fowl smelling humans. I suppose they didn't believe in bathing during this time period. They were crowded around the bloodied wings and the angel-sized dent in the ground, whispering about what kind of omen this could be.
I had returned to the same street as last night. It wasn't a very wealthy part of the city, filled with people who didn't look like they had enough to eat. Some were even asking passerby's for food or money, mostly children.
They stared, with widened, fearful faces as Apollo himself walked down the street.
"That's Apollo," Levi says quietly from beside me as I pretended not to know who he was. "Although it is strange for him to be dealing with human affairs. Usually when they ask for an oracle Sada comes."
"Please don't tell me those belong to who I think they belong to." Apollo casually addresses Levi as he looks over the heads of the people and leans against the wall.
"They do." The fallen angel replies.
"I'll see what I can do to calm down the people."
"You can't do anything." A new voice adds from behind us.
It was Gabriel, his silvery hair glowing in the backlit alley he stood in. The three of us watched as he walked to the front of the crowd and began speaking to them. We could not hear what he said, but suddenly the crowd dispersed and the whispering stopped.
"The sad thing about wings," Gabriel says facing them as we walk up, "is that they crumble to ashes after a few hours of being detatched from the body." Slowly he reaches down, pointer finger extended, and brushes it along the tops of each wing. We watched as they turned to dust and blew down the street in the ocean breeze.
"He didn't deserve it." Apollo says wistfully.
"He did it with honor." Levi replies.
Gabriel left after fixing the dent Azazel had made when he slammed Michael into the ground. Apollo came with us back to the abandoned shack we were hiding in. It was in the middle of the woods, and surprisingly well kept for its poor structure. There were two main rooms, one for sleeping and one for eating. We led Apollo to the bedroom where he took a look at a sleeping Azazel's injury. He had conked out as soon as his bandages were on and probably wouldn't wake up for a while.
"Heavenly punishments are not something I have the capability to heal." Apollo says, "But I can provide you with an ointment and physical therapy workouts to help speed up the process. Leviathan, stay here. Aria, come with me."
Levi scowls at the nickname Apollo gave him, and constrastingly, I almost didn't respond to mine. I had panicked last night, after helping him situate Azazel, when Levi asked me what my name was. I sputtered out syllables and ended up with Aria.
I followed Apollo into the woods, neither of us speaking a word until we were well away from the shack.
"Do you know why I am an oracle?" He asked, bending down to pick the leaves off a certain plant. I told him no. "The sun is impervious to time. He is made from the energy inside the universe and will be reborn time and time again. Helios is the father of our solar system. So there is a little bit of universe inside each of us, some more than others: myself, God, Azazel, you... I may not be able to travel through time physically, but I can look into the future as well as the past. And I can read someone's future or past like Azazel can read someone's soul..."
He looks up at me, directly in my eyes, and continues.
"Do not forget, Eliya, that there is something inside you none of us can comprehend. And I suggest you figure out what that is before going after the moonstone."
Holy fuck, I'm screwed.
"You couldn't have told me this before I left?!" I hissed, racing after him as he left me to find the next plant.
"I'm just reminding you of something you already knew." He laughs. "Remember that pesky prophecy, Little Miss Savior?"
"Care to tell me what my superpower is, Wise One?" I teased, rolling my eyes while going to collect the petals he told me to get from a nearby flower.
"Nope." He grinned, "I can't see everything you know, the sun is only out during the day."
"So you're saying ask Theia?"
"She certainly plays a part in this, just like almost everything else." He grumbles, avoiding the question. "It is her moonstone after all."
"And her scythe."
"And her scythe." He repeats quietly.
When we make it back to the shack we're laughing like I never left. It's nice to have someone to joke with and to provide me with all the current gossip. Apparently the seven don't even get along right now. They had a huge falling out when Azazel was forced to the underworld, Apollo won't tell me why, and now they always get into fights whenever they see eachother, which they do, because they all still help collect souls for Azazel.
At least now I have something to do while Azazel sleeps.
We crowded around Azazel, who had taken to sleeping on his stomach and hadn't moved. Apparently this was a miracle because he hardly ever sleeps, let alone for this long. Apollo pulled up a chair and began brushing the planty paste on Azazel's back.
"Don't ever apply this directly over his wound." He instructs, "His immune system will start fighting off the ointment instead of working on healing his ligaments. All this does is help the skin scab over and heal faster, which allows his body to start fixing up his back without fighting infection.... you need to apply this morning and night, rinsing his back with small amounts of hot water before each application."
"Is that all?" Levi asked skeptically.
"I'm afraid so. You are lucky though. His wings were pulled out on neutral land, so there is a chance they will grow back. If they had been pulled out on heavenly land... well lets just say he wouldn't ever fly again. All we can do now is wait and hope. Now, I'd love to help more, but my three day nap is overdue. Goodbye and good luck." After Apollo left we let the wound air out a bit before putting on new bandages.
"Levi," I whispered when we finished "I need your help."
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Wowza, it sure has been a while! I hope you like it!
Also... we've been ranked third in #thedevil ISN'T THAT AMAZING??!
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You guys are all so incredible, lets keep the momentum going and get to first place yeah?? And we're so close to 1k reads, it would really make my day if we got there by Christmas!
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